A Miraculous Musical

Chapter 5: When There Was Me and You

For the next few weeks, Adrien and Marinette had been quite busy between basketball practices, callback rehearsals, and the scholastic decathlon. Since their schedules never matched up, they had to either practice by themselves or with Juleka. A few times, Chloe and Sabrina happened to overhear them and try to investigate.

Just as they'd hoped, Marinette's family bakery had quickly started to pick up momentum. Every morning they started out being packed with customers. And at the end of every day, they sold out of everything. There were never any leftovers to store in the back room.

During a basketball practice, the whole team was doing an exercise where they quickly tossed the ball to each other. Coach Raincomprix constantly barked at them to go faster and put more power into their tosses. He paced up and down the line of players. As the ball reached Ivan, the coach blew his whistle signaling for them to stop. He stalked up to Ivan, invading his personal space. "You seen Adrien?"

Ivan stood there nervously with the basketball clutched in his hands. "No sir."

The coach raised an eyebrow at him, sitting there for a few minutes before he accepted his answer. He blew his whistle harshly, signaling for them to continue their exercise. Adrien missing practice was starting to become a regular occurrence, and all of the team knew it was because he was starting to dedicate more time into callbacks. Sometimes he and Marinette would willingly help out in Miss Mendeleiev's detention to paint props and sew costumes.

Soon, basketball practice was over and the coach dismissed the players. As they jogged out of the gym, Adrien came rushing in ready for practice. On Nino's way out, he happened to spot Adrien. He couldn't contain his disappointment as he rolled his eyes. Nino passive aggressively passed a basketball to Adrien before he left the gym.

Adrien just stood there in embarrassment as the coach glared at him. Disappointment wasn't really the word that would be used to describe what the coach was feeling.

"I, uh, think I'm gonna stay a while. Work on some free throws." Adrien suggested timidly.

"Well, since you missed practice, I think your team deserves a little effort from you today." The coach eyed the boy in shame before he left the gym as well.

Adrien sighed with frustration as he started dribbling. He gracefully shot a basketball hoop before he heard a pleasantly familiar voice somewhere behind him. "So, this is your real stage." Marinette wanders into the gym from behind him.

The boy's face lights up at the sight of her. "Yeah, I guess you could call it that, or just a smelly gym." He picked up his basketball and playfully tossed it to her. She clumsily fumbled with the ball before she finally caught it. She gave him a goofy grin when she finally managed to catch the ball.

Then she tosses the basketball and makes it into the hoop, surprising both of them. "Woah," Adrien remarked. "Look at you. You're pretty good."

"Not really." She undermined herself as she went to pick the ball up from the ground and passed it back to Adrien. "It was a miracle that I made that shot. I've never really played basketball."

"I bet you'd be really good if you let me teach you." Adrien playfully offered.

"That's okay." She waved him off before changing the subject. "So, I've been rehearsing with Juleka."

"Me too and, um by the way, I missed practice. So if I get kicked off the team it should be on your conscience." He jested with a straight face.

Marinette's eyes widened in panic. "Wait, but I wasn't the one who told you to-"

"Marinette, relax, it was a joke." He cracked a smile at her adorable stumbling.

She relaxed when she realized he was only messing around, but then she decided to get revenge by snatching the ball from his hands and running around the gym.